Community Access and Parking Program – Columbia City

IMPLEMENTATION UPDATE (11/28/17):

New paid parking and most new RPZ areas have been installed. Over the next month, crews will complete installation of the RPZ 29 expansion, new unpaid time limits, designated disabled spaces, and other minor changes. See the map below for the final plan.

For residents or employers within the expanded RPZ 29, please use the following applications to obtain RPZ permits.

Background

Through the Community Access and Parking Program, SDOT works in neighborhood business districts throughout the city to improve parking and access. In Columbia City, SDOT spent over a year on outreach and data collection to develop a proposed plan for parking changes, which was released in February 2017. We used feedback from our proposal, in concert with SDOT's parking management programs and policies, to develop a final neighborhood parking plan.

Employer/Business FAQs

General FAQ

English

Existing Conditions

Parking in Columbia City is a mix of restricted parking zone parking, unrestricted parking, and parking with time limits. These are shown in the following map. Note that this map only shows parking on streets immediately in and around the Rainier Avenue business district. For detail on surrounding streets see the RPZ Zone 29 map and/or the Seattle Parking Map.

Commercial Area Parking Study - March 2015

SDOT completed a parking study in the Columbia City neighborhood on Tuesday, March 31, 2015, surveying both parking occupancy and duration on about 170 parking spaces adjacent or near businesses. It found the following items:

Area parking exceeded 90% occupancy from 10 AM until after 8 PM. This likely indicates that individuals who drive to the neighborhood likely circulate on local streets searching for available parking.

In terms of duration, most vehicles observed parking in the area for short stays, with 78% of vehicles parking 0-2 hours in the study area (54% observed stayed less than one hour).

While most vehicles stayed for short periods, the small number of vehicles that parked all day had a big influence on parking availability. Over a third of observed spaces were occupied by a single vehicle parking 6+ hours.